One of the more famous suppressed films of recent years is Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, an early work by writer/director Todd Haynes (Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Far from Heaven). Filmed in 1987, the short film -- which relates the rise and fall of Karen Carpenter with a cast of Barbie dolls -- barely got a year's worth of festival time in 1989 before the twin iron boots of A&M Records and Richard Carpenter came down on Haynes.* [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Dec 31, 2011 -
29 comments
Sure,
Scarlett O'Hara Barbie is lovely, and yeah,
Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz Barbie is cute, but for my money, it's hard to beat
Marge Simpson Barbie,
Medusa Barbie, or
Dominatrix Barbie. The full collection, located
here, clearly owes a debt to
Todd Haynes, and the
Barbie Liberation Army, but is still worth a chuckle.
posted by jonson
on Jun 21, 2003 -
7 comments
Barbie and her friends now have blogs. Seeing this seriously made me consider hanging my hat and going home. They even have webcams, to do lists, and little photo galleries. The corporate giants are working hard to pull girls in to technology - which is a really good thing. Too bad the latest posts are about buying mini-skirts and things like that.
posted by christine_bpc
on Mar 15, 2003 -
14 comments
Barbie creator, Mattel founder Handler dies More than one billion Barbies have been sold in 150 countries and has inspired love from girls everywhere and pure hatred from feminists everywhere.
"The impossibly well-endowed doll -- her original figure would be about 39-18-33 if she were human -- has infuriated feminists, inspired artists and intrigued academics around the world. Barbie even was placed in the official "America's Time Capsule" buried in 1976." Can you think of any other toy who has brought about as much ferver as Barbie???
posted by gloege
on Apr 29, 2002 -
30 comments
Multiethnic Barbie. (
picture) ""It would be really boring if there were all white people," says the fourth-grader, who also likes her dolls to portray people she knows - from her half-Asian cousins to classmates of all races." Of course, nobody she knows probably has Barbie's proportions...
posted by owillis
on Feb 19, 2002 -
31 comments
Ken, of Barbie and Ken has turned 40. To mark the occasion, Mattel is releasing a hot, young, 20 year old secretary, that Ken is having an affair with, and a Porsche 911.
(to complete the whole midlife crisis thing you see.)
posted by tiaka
on Mar 15, 2001 -
3 comments
Not that we need to give Mattel any more press, but I found
gothic Barbie and Ken, Addams gig or no, to be très étrange. (Oh Tish! That's French! You know that drives me to further acts of kitschy assimilation!)
posted by jason
on Jul 10, 2000 -
4 comments
